MUSIC IN REVIEW

MUSIC IN REVIEW; Cincinnati Orchestra

By ALLAN KOZINN

Published: April 4, 2003

Carnegie Hall

Paavo Jarvi took over as music director of the Cincinnati Orchestra in 2001, and since then he has made a few recordings for Telarc that have left a cloudy impression of his accomplishments. But the blistering performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 that closed the orchestra's program on Monday evening showed the potential that Mr. Jarvi and this ensemble have, and suggest a powerful chemistry between them.

Mr. Jarvi began with the New York premiere of ''Exodus'' (1999) by Erkki-Sven Tuur, an Estonian composer who lists Frank Zappa and the British art-rock band King Crimson among his influences. The first half of his piece uses kaleidoscopic juxtapositions, with layers of swirling strings and combative brass bursts enveloping everything from a Beethovenesque gallop to a brief string of jazz-tinged pitched percussion. This chaotic writing unfolds into a tranquil, texturally transparent closing section.

There were moments in the work's densest writing when the orchestra's strings seemed to flag, but mostly the musicians projected the level of energy that Mr. Tuur demanded. Mr. Jarvi also drew a generally fine performance from his players in the Sibelius Violin Concerto, with Vadim Repin as the soloist. Mr. Repin produced a big, seductive sound and played the solo line with an easygoing lyricism engulfing islands of fiery virtuosity. But more than usual, a listener was drawn to the orchestra as well: in the graceful pianissimo of the work's opening pages, for example, or the unusual balances between winds and strings at various points along the way.

None of this hinted at the polish the orchestra would bring to the Shostakovich, though. All the grittiness, melancholy and anger that Shostakovich poured into his first symphony after Stalin's death made itself felt in Mr. Jarvi's reading, and there were moments -- the entire second movement, for example, and the work's closing allegro -- when the orchestra played with a transfixing ferocity. ALLAN KOZINN